Black Atlantic Presents:

Black Atlantic Presents: Ghost People Album Launch
September 15, 2011: London
Martyn & Erosie with Kode 9 & Guests at Secret Hoxton Warehouse Location
Thursday, September 15th

9:00 PM. 12.00 (Tickets)

Flying Lotus Brainfeeder empire has always put art at the forefront, forever uncovering ways to merge different mediums. Holland-born/DC-based electronic music artist Martyn was an inevitable addition to the LA label, in that sense, despite operating his own 3024 imprint. Ghost People the sophomore album from electronic musician Martyn will be released on Brainfeeder on October 10th.

Martyn started his 3024 record label in 2007 with his close friend from Eindhoven, Erosie, the artist formally known as street artist who blends images and visual styles in the same unorthodox way that Maryn combines sounds. Erosie and Martyn have been working together since 2002, with their respective careers unintentionally mirroring one another along the way.

The artwork for Ghost People is the 9th in a freeform mural series Erosie dubs Horror Vacui (fear of empty space), which is also the name of one of Martyns album tracks. Horror Vacui murals have appeared in galleries and warehouses in different parts of the world: the Ghost People cover was created on a wall 18m high in Poland, painstakingly painted by hand on a scaffolding. Using a reactive technique, Erosie utilizes the blank space as art therapy, a means to express his frustration about the state of todays information-overloaded world.

Erosie, on his creative process:

The album cover was in Poland that was the first one I did on an outside wall. The Horror Vacui series is really much more about the process of how it evolves I start [painting] on the top left and end in the bottom right corner, and I dont know what will happen in-between. Instead of thinking about something and making a conceptual piece, its more like creating a framework in which anything can happen intuitively, as a response to everyday culture, life and influences. I want these different chapters of work to be about the emotional approach towards communication, or the public space. Its not so much about the imagery even though its black and white, and really outgoing its much more about the process of how it evolves, or how it exists.

Martyn, on Ghost People:

Its my idea of whats going on in music at the moment. Its four-to-the-floor based, and its also quite anxious. Its obnoxious, its hard-sounding. I just wanted to make something a little more aggressive. Ghost People is so many ideas packed in to so little time, but hopefully it will make you want to listen again. Its similar to how Erosies artwork is intense, an overload of thoughts, instead of an easily digestible image.

To bring Ghost People to life, Martyn and Erosie will be combining their mediums for a series of one-off launch parties in various parts of the world. Martyn will play a live set with Erosies art as the backdrop, integrating the music from Ghost People and Erosies art (keeping in line with the Horror Vacui mural style and ideology), and adapting it to each location.

Teaming up with Londons Black Atlantic, the first album launch will be in London on Thursday, September 15th at a secret location in Hoxton. The venue will be covered in Erosies art, so the listeners will be immersed in what Martyn calls a full live manifestation of the album. Martyns live set will be accompanied by a special garage set from Hyperdub leader kode9, a set from Exit Records boss dBridge, and a performance from Manny Z from Citinite. The evening will be hosted by SP:MC.

A series of art/music events are also planned for special venues in Berlin, Paris, Ghent, Los Angeles and more this fall further details to be revealed asap.

HORROR VACUI # 08 from Jeroen Erosie on Vimeo.

Erosie has developed an idiosyncratic style for all manner of platforms whether creating stirring and provocative posters for the streets of Holland (beautiful typographies that read Five Words Screaming For Attention or You Have One Message, for instance), or an infamous series of graffiti bicycle tags in 2003-2004 (a response to Eindhovens local government removing bike poles), or his intricate gallery-spanning murals. With Martyns experimental music slotting somewhere between Drum & Bass, dubstep, techno, house and minimalistic electronica, hes been an artist equally frustrating categorists since day one. Erosie calls their shared artistic tendency genre-phobia.Erosie explains: Im afraid of being pushed too much in one corner. Theres something in both of us that works against this. Were doing a very different thing me, with my visual struggles, and Martyn, being in-between genres of music: hes never really acknowledging one or the other. Its always different links in one song. Its a similar approach in a very different medium.